Melissa Parke (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Late last year in Kuala Lumpur I participated in a parliamentary roundtable concerning the abolition of the death penalty in Malaysia, which was co-hosted by the parliament of Malaysia and the Parliamentarians for Global Action, or PGA, of which I am the chair of the Australian branch. At that roundtable it seemed that progress was made concerning the mandatory death penalty for certain offences and the issue of transparency and accountability around the use of the death penalty.

It is with much disappointment and sadness that I note that Malaysia last month secretly carried out the executions of three men. These actions were criticised as 'arbitrary, secretive and hasty' in a media statement by the Malaysian branch of PGA. I call upon the Australian government to convey a strong protest to the Malaysian government concerning these secretive executions.

At the roundtable in KL, I also met the family of a 31-year-old Malaysian man, Kho Jabing, who faces imminent execution in Singapore following the rejection of his court appeal. Earlier courts had found that there was no intention to cause death during the robbery, and Jabing's sentence had been converted to life imprisonment. However, this was narrowly overturned on appeal. The only recourse for Kho Jabing is for the President to reconsider clemency, and there are many groups calling for this, including Reprieve Australia, Amnesty International, ADPAN and Second Chances.

To be effective, Australia must maintain a principled and consistent opposition to the death penalty in all cases, including when Australians are not involved. I therefore call on the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister to make urgent representations to the President of Singapore to respectfully ask him to reconsider Kho Jabing's clemency application and spare this young man from the death penalty.